Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-017414, filed Jan. 27, 2003; Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-044353, filed Feb. 21, 2003; and Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-044354, filed Feb. 21, 2003; and the contents thereof are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for facilitating disassembly of an item to be recycled, such as an OA product or an electrical household appliance, and in particular relates to a recycling facilitating system, a recycling facilitating program, and a recycling facilitating method, which can perform efficient disassembly.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a recycling method such as that disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-197147 is used in facilitating disassembly of an item to be recycled, such as an OA product or an electrical household appliance.
This is a method for recycling components and materials of an item to be recycled, and is performed by the following steps (a) to (g).
(a) Items to be recycled, arising in a specified areas, are conveyed to a specified collection site and stored there.
(b) The specified collection site has an input section for reading first appliance data that is appended to the item to be recycled, and a memory for storing a disassembly database including data required to compare, disassemble, and classify, the item to be recycled. At the specified collection site, the first appliance data of the item to be recycled, obtained in the input section, is compared with a corresponding disassembly database.
(c) Based on the comparison between the first appliance data of the items to be recycled and the disassembly database, the items to be recycled are classified into a plurality of first categories, and classification data relating to the items to be recycled is stored in the disassembly database.
(d) The specified collection site identifies disassembly processing outside member data and non-disassembly processing member data of the items to be recycled, which have been classified into the plurality of first categories, based on the first product data and the disassembly database, displays the identification result in a display section, and stores the disassembly processing outside member data and the non-disassembly processing member data in the disassembly database.
(e) Based on the result displayed in the display section, the items to be recycled are disassembled into disassembly processing outside members and non-disassembly processing members, and the disassembly processing outside members are classified into a plurality of second categories.
(f) With regard to the non-disassembly processing members and the disassembly processing outside members, which have been classified into the plurality of second categories, the disassembly processing outside members are conveyed to each material maker, and the non-disassembly processing members are conveyed to each product maker, and accumulated there.
(g) The accumulated disassembly processing outside members are worked into reproduction materials using a processing method, based on the disassembly database, and data relating to the reproduction materials is stored in the disassembly database.
Then, the disassembly database is made communal for the specified collection site, the material makers, and the product makers, via a network.
In the conventional recycling method described above, based on the result displayed in the display section, the items to be recycled are disassembled into non-disassembly processing members and disassembly processing outside members. More specifically, at first, the disassembly data is displayed in the display section, and, based on the displayed disassembly data, the outside members and body section of the items to be recycled are disassembled. At this time, in the disassembly data comprises disassembly data relating to the outside members and body sections of the items to be recycled, and recycle data and reuse data relating to the outside members and the body sections, this data containing at least the type of material used in the outside members and body sections, the name of the material maker of the outside members and the body sections, the name of the maker of the item to be recycled from the outside members and the body sections, the name of the outside members and the body sections, and the member number of the outside members and the body sections.
However, there is a problem that it is difficult for the operator who performs the disassembly to determine how exactly to disassembly the items to be recycled based only on this type of disassembly data.
Furthermore, it is desirable that the disassembly operator determines an appropriate sequence in accordance with the progress of the disassembly operation, but this requires sufficient prior experience, and, when there is an enormous number of categories of items to be recycled, even an experienced operator will be limited in his ability to determine the appropriate sequence. Even if the operator refers to a manual or the like illustrating the disassembly sequence for each item to be recycled, when there is an enormous number of categories or items to be recycled, time is consumed in referring to the manual or the like, limiting his efficiency. The same problem arises when the disassembly processes are complex, since it takes time to refer to the manual or the like.